Pheww… looks like we all survived the holiday craziness. Good for us!

We had a wonderful holiday. We started out Christmas Eve at my MIL’s house, enjoying a lunch of shrimp & my personal favorite cheese – manchego. It was a quick lunch then we raced around back at our house while Tommy napped, getting ourselves ready for the annual Christmas Eve party spent at my cousin’s house along with most of the family from my father’s side. It was the first time many of them met Tommy, and I was proud to say he was a very good boy throughout the late afternoon and evening. He did get a little fussy towards the end of the night, but apparently he was tired enough to pass out in Tony’s arms. It was adorable! We learned a valuable lesson once we arrived home later that night, and we will do our best to never again miss the baby’s bedtime routine hour. YIKES. No sooner had we arrived home when Tommy was wide awake and ready to play the night away. Finally he went to bed around midnight…only to wake back up, and go back to bed (eventually) at 5 AM. Finally all were up at 7:30 for Christmas morning looking exhausted but ready to celebrate! We each received very nice, and sometimes surprising gifts. Amongst Tommy’s favorites was a brand new hot rod pedal car – a special gift from his Daddy. He spotted his hot rod the minute we brought him downstairs Christmas morning, and was practically leaping out of my arms to get to it. He enjoyed his other gifts including the clothes and socks Santa Claus left for him, but so far the peddle car is his favorite…he’ll eventually reach the floor when sitting in it. For now he’ll have Tony (and me) to help push him around the house…lucky guy. I also received a really great gift…a Nintendo NES – yeah that’s right the old school one – complete with Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt and Tetris. This gift, from Tony, was one that I’ve wanted for some years now…it brings me back to my childhood playing it now. Good times people, good times. Christmas morning my folks stopped by to deliver some great stuff for all of us, including a little plastic snow globe which Tommy loves. It has his favorite character, Tigger, inside along with Pooh Bear and Piglet. They are surrounded by swirling snow. Of course, Tommy tries to eat it every time I hand it over to him. We spent most of the rest of the day with Tony’s family at his Mom’s house. We always get together for a delicious Christmas meal of eggs benedict, homemade fried potatoes, sausage, mimosas, and lots of cookies. By the afternoon we were all exhausted from all the partying, eating, and gift opening, so we made some frozen pizza for dinner, and everyone went to bed early. Friday I ventured out to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up part of my Christmas present. I had been wanting new dinnerware. So for Christmas my parents gave me one set of four place settings (and some great extras like a giant serving platter), and my MIL gave me money to go and get the other set of four. Lets just say I learned my lesson about the day after Christmas shopping. O.M.G. YIKES!!! I will never do that again. A ride that usually takes me 20 minutes at the most (with traffic) took me over an hour to get there, and about a half hour to get home. The only silver lining is that I now have enough place settings to sit 8 people at my table with my brand new adorable dishes, that I love love love so much! Saturday day and night I worked on my culinary skills by attempting my own twist on a recipe I saw Giada De Laurentiis make for Stuffed Portobella Mushrooms. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/grilled-and-stuffed-portobello-mushrooms-with-gorgonzola-recipe/index.html
I am not a fan of mushrooms, so instead I served it on slices of yummy French bread…though I did fry up some mushrooms to put on top of a few of the ones I gave to Tony. I also put some spinach on mine and they were excellent. I’ll admit…they could have looked a little more appetizing, BUT for my first attempt at making something a little outside the box (at least for me), I think it was smashingly good! Saturday night I threw a nice dinner together for Tony, his mom, and my SIL Diana. A delicious slow cooked ham with potatoes augratin, and some yummy buttered green beans, all served up on my brand new plates! For desert we had a chocolate cake with chocolate icing in the shape of a castle to celebrate Tony’s birthday. Sunday, I met up with my girlfriend Tana for coffee at Starbucks (the iced pumpkin spice latte was EXCELLENT – I highly recommend it) . In the afternoon we has some friends over to watch the big Eagles game (I enjoyed some girl-talk with our friend Danelle), were Tony grilled up some ribs, and we all enjoyed cheesesteak stromboli, along with leftover cake and holiday cookies. Tommy received a really nice Christmas gift...check it out. It's a Flyers jersey (ice hockey for those who don't know). The back has our last name and the numbers #08 for the year Tommy was born. Cute, right! Needless to say it has taken me a couple of days to wind down from all of the holiday craziness, sort through the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of pictures I took on Christmas day, and to get my house back in working order….just in time to think about how we’re going to celebrate the end of a wonderful year!